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1975 First Edition Hardcover Near Fine No Dustwrapper as Issued a few small marks along the top edge of a couple of volumes otherwise looks and feels like an unread set. In original clear acetate removable covers, 5 large 4to volumes in burgundy cloth with titles blocked in gilt on the spine. Sturdy slipcase covered in the same burgundy cloth, has a couple of nicks long the rear top edges, The letters are in the original Italian and all the commentarries are in Engliish in a smaller font. A storehouse of fasinating information revealing the work of this brilliant and prolific doctor. Wki quote: Marcello Malpighi (March 10, 1628 - September 30, 1694) was an Italian doctor, who gave his name to several physiological features.Malpighi used the microscope for studies on skin, kidney, and for the first interspecies comparison of the liver. He greatly extended the science of embryology. The use of microscopes enabled him to describe the development of the chick in its egg, and discovered that insects (particularly, the silk worm) do not use lungs to breathe, but small holes in their skin called tracheae. Later he falsely concluded that plants had similar tubules. However, he observed that when a ringlike portion of bark was removed on a trunk a swelling of the tissues would occur above the ring. He correctly interpreted this as growth stimulated by food coming down from the leaves, and being blocked above the ring. He was the first to see capillaries and discovered the link between arteries and veins that had eluded William Harvey. Malpighi is regarded as the founder of microscopic anatomy and the first histologist. Many microscopic anatomical structures are named after him, including a skin layer (Malpighi layer) and two different Malpighian corpuscles in the kidneys and the spleen, as well as the Malpighian tubules in the excretory system of insects. He also studied chick embryo development with detailed drawings and discovered taste buds of human tongue. Some of his studies he made by vivisection. He also studied the anatomy of a brain and concluded that this organ is a gland. In terms of modern endocrinology this deduction is correct because neurotransmitter substances represent paracrine hormones, and the hypothalamus of the brain has long been recognized for its hormone-secreting capacity. He was also among the first to study human fingerprints. His treatise 'De polypo cordis' (1666) was important towards understanding how blood clots and its composition. He may have been the first person to see red blood cells under a microscope. He described how the form of a blood clot differed in the right vs. the left sides of the heart. In addition to his anatomical studies, he was one of the rare contemporary scholars who studied plants; he published his findings in a book Anatomia Plantarum in 1671. It was the most exhaustive study of botany at the time. The Royal Society published it the next year. The great Swedish botanist Linnaeus named the genus Malpighia in honor of Malpighi's work on plants; Malpighia is the type genus for the Malpighiaceae, a family of tropical and subtropical flowering plants. After the dissection of a black male, Malpighi made some ground-breaking headway into the discovery of the origin of black skin. Malpighi found that the black pigment was caused by a layer of mucus just beneath the skin. 020748 Price:
140.00 USD